Contents

History

In March 2019, Deribit announced that it was partnering with Caspian, a digital asset management service based in Hong Kong. Caspian integrated its trading platform with Deribit's exchange, allowing Deribit's users to trade using Caspian's software platform.[1][2]

Deribit introduced block trading over Paradigm, an encrypted communications network, in August 2019. Minimum block sizes are 40 bitcoin and 800 Ether. The company's chief operating officer, Marius Jansen, told BNN Bloomberg that Deribit's block trading is not regulated because Dutch law defines a derivative as a cash-settled contract.[3] According to the company's website, the derivatives contracts pay-out in bitcoin at the time weighted average of its BTC index.[4]

On October 31, 2019, Deribit experienced a technical malfunction that caused the price of its BTC perpetual swap contracts to decrease in price by 15 percent. Deribit locked its platform shortly after, announcing via Telegram that the platform had failed to remove incorrect outlier prices from an exchange Deribit uses to calculate BTC's price. Deribit didn't say which exchange this was, though it's possible - though unconfirmed - that it was Coinbase, which was down for about 75 minutes at the same time. Deribit promised to compensate clients who were negatively impacted by the error; the company's COO Marius Jansen estimated the cost of compensation would be around $1.3 million.[5]

Products and services

Deribit offers derivatives products for bitcoin and Ether. They are cash-settled, not physically-settled derivatives of cryptocurrency, so they are paid out in USD. Their maximum allowed position is $10,000,000 worth of bitcoin, or $5,000,000 worth of Ether. Fees follow the maker-taker pricing model, which gives rebates to market makers and charges fees to customers (takers). Bitcoin futures orders receive a 0.02% rebate, while customers are charged 0.05%.

Perpetual contracts

Similar to cryptocurrency trading platforms like BitMEX and OKEx, Deribit offers perpetual contracts for bitcoin and Ether.[6]

Options

Deribit offers options contracts for both bitcoin and Ether - both of which are cash-settled, like Deribit's other products. Deribit's options contracts are traded "European Style," meaning that they can only be exercised at expiration.[7]

Block trades

Deribit offers block trading, which allows companies to make large, non-public transactions at agreed-upon prices through its partnership with the fintech firm Paradigm. Deribit has an insurance fund to cover losses from bankrupt traders.[8]